Former US Air Force Pilot Describes "Shiny" Object In Bizarre UFO Claim
Ryan Bodenheimer, who served with the elite Thunderbirds aerobatic team, recounted the sightings in a video on his YouTube channel. He said the stigma around UFO sightings among pilots has faded over the years.
In one incident, while returning from a training exercise near the highly classified Area 51, Bodenheimer claimed an object zipped past his jet at 400 knots (approximately 740 km/h) at 30,000 feet. He described it as "a silver, unpainted, shiny, reflective" craft shaped like a 3D triangle with wing-like structures underneath and a vertical tail.
"It looked like a futuristic fighter jet - too advanced, almost machine-welded," he said, adding that neither he nor his superiors picked up anything on radar.
The second incident, he said, occurred at a similar altitude when a rectangular object slowly approached from the front left. "Its edges were so bright they were pulsing," he said. "The centre was clear and slightly coloured."
Bodenheimer reported the sighting to Air Traffic Control, though no radar confirmation followed.
According to the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), there were 757 new UFO reports between May 2023 and June 2024. Most occurred in controlled airspace, with no underwater sightings.
Roughly 300 cases have been explained, while the rest remain unresolved.
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